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One of the most ambitious scientific instruments ever flown by a space shuttle was successfully attached to the International Space Station early this morning. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) will collect and analyze cosmic particles in an attempt to learn more about antimatter and dark energy.
I describe the AMS in more detail, here.
Mission specialists Andrew Feustel and Roberto Vittori used space shuttle Endeavour’s robotic arm to pick up the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 from the orbitor payload bay, hand it off to the ISS’s robotic arm Canadarm2, and Endeavour Pilot Greg Johnson and mission specialist Greg Chamitoff used that to install the AMS-2 to the starboard side of the ISS’s truss.
